Leveraging cost-reduction opportunities in the roof replacement or new construction markets for residential photovoltaic (PV) installations could help the United States meet the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) residential solar photovoltaic cost target by 2030, according to new research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The NREL analysis presents a potential roadmap for achieving the 2030 residential target of $0.05 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) by identifying and quantifying a plausible range of cost reduction opportunities and mapping how these opportunities could influence system costs in key market segments.

Findings - Homeowners - Cost - Savings - PV

"Our findings suggest that between now and 2030 homeowners could see a considerable cost savings when installing PV and a new roof at the same time," said Kristen Ardani, lead author of the report and a solar technology markets and policy analyst at NREL. "We also found that PV installed on new construction offers opportunities for even greater cost reduction. However, it will require considerable business model and permitting process innovation to realize the cost savings potential identified in each of these market segments."

The analysis and findings are detailed in the Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential Solar Photovoltaics (PV), 2017-2030. The report identifies and defines four key cost-reduction opportunities that could have a significant impact on the installed cost of residential PV through 2030: market maturity, business model integration, product innovation, and economies of scale. To assess the potential impact of these specific cost-reduction opportunities, NREL researchers compared modeled residential PV system costs in 2030 to NREL's U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2017. Since 2010, NREL has benchmarked current PV system prices for the residential, commercial, and utility-scale sectors. These benchmarks are generated using a bottom-up accounting framework for all component and project-development costs incurred when installing PV systems. The residential benchmark models the cash purchase price for...